


Lift Me Up

by ChocolateCoconut



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves Friendship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Light Angst, Mentioned The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), No Incest, One Shot, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, The Umbrella Academy (TV) Season 2 Spoilers, The Umbrella Academy (TV) Spoilers, no possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25924432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolateCoconut/pseuds/ChocolateCoconut
Summary: How the heck did Klaus go from "levitating" to starting a whole ass cult?! And what was Ben's involvement in it all?Season 2 compliant. Mix of Ben's and Klaus's points of view.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	Lift Me Up

It started off with telekinesis.

Cups, plates, paintings, chairs, you name it — Klaus could stare at an object for a few seconds, crinkle his eyes, and said object would magically shake, rattle, roll, lift, or drop, earning thunderous applause from the crowd.

(Once, he even telekinesised — _telekinzed_? — a toupee right off a man’s head after overhearing the man flirting with a woman who was not his wife.)

Except it wasn’t magic. Well, unless you count Klaus using his superpowers to make his long-dead brother able to interact with the physical realm (yet still appear invisible to everyone but the two of them) as magic. Then, sure, it was magic.

The wealthy retirees of Dallas ate it right up. They’d pay exorbitant sums to attend the city’s most exclusive dinner parties featuring Klaus the Great. Kitty — his manager, publicist, or pimp, take your pick of the best way to describe her — passed half of the earnings on to Klaus. She also showered him with gifts — clothes, accessories, even a car and a luxury apartment unit. Klaus also hinted about a few books, which he promptly gave to Ben. (To shut up the ghost, mind you; not out of the goodness of his own heart.)

It was… a lot. Ben constantly questioned the morality of it all, from the first time they made a vase levitate (which was motivated by sheer excitement that he and Klaus found themselves able to do it) and every single day since. 

Ben’s reasonable side (or was it pessimism?) told him they were scamming these poor people. He and Klaus were no better than phony palm readers or street psychics who preyed off desperate, vulnerable people.

Except, Klaus’s fans weren’t poor. Not in any sense of the word. They had money to spare and were thrilled to spare it on “magic.” They’d even tip Klaus after the show — and sometimes _during_ it, tossing bills into the air or into his pants, making him feel like the world’s pretty stripper. (He wondered which Hemsworth would play him in a movie.) 

A none-small part of Ben also loved the notion of sticking it to the rich, seeing it as an F-U to their billionaire dad. He and Klaus could be smarter than any of them.

But what really made Ben feel most okay with their partnered scheme was its effect on Klaus. Or rather, what it kept him away from: Drugs. We’re talking drugs.

The brothers had found that Klaus needed to be stone-cold sober in order for him to be able to give Ben the gift of touch. If Klaus had had even so much as a sip of alcohol or a drag from a blunt within the last 12ish hours, his powers wouldn’t work properly. Ben would either be unable to touch anything at all or he’d appear corporeal, ruining the effect. (Fortunately, they discovered the latter scenario during a practice run between just the two of them.)

And the money they were making, plus the praise and awe being showered upon Klaus, was enough to both motivate The Man Formerly Known as Number 4 to stay sober _and_ to sustain his mental health well enough that he didn’t feel the need to numb the pain with any substances.

...Well, at least that was true _most_ of the time. He had bad days, horrible, torturous days — usually when he heard or saw something that reminded him of his none-Ben siblings, sending him into a downward spiral in which he was near-certain they were all dead.

He tried summoning each of their ghosts, of course, but they never showed. That wasn’t really concrete evidence of anything though. Maybe, Klaus reasoned, they’d already gone into the light. Or, if they had died in 2019 (killed by Five’s time travel attempt), he might not be able to contact their spirits in the 60s. 

Or maybe it was simpler than all that. Maybe those five selfish dickheads were just ignoring him, finally having a great excuse to do so. Yes, that seemed like the most likely possibility of all.

So, whenever Klaus remembered that all of his siblings were maybe-possibly-quite-likely dead, he’d either drink, get high, or go to an Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meeting — sometimes a combo of all those options. 

But still, since arriving in 1960, Klaus was sober more often than not, and Ben was tremendously grateful for that. He was proud of him and would do near-anything to keep it that way.

Heck, Ben even found the scheming to be quite fun most of the time. It reminded him of the pranks that the siblings would pull as children — the “pull my fingers”, the phone calls to their dad “from his stinky butt”, the reprogramming of Allison’s Teddy Ruxpin, the makeup and hair accessories they’d adorn Pogo with while the chimp slept, even that time right after his death when Klaus pissed in dad’s gas tank.

Sure, it was childish. But they hadn’t had get to have a normal childhood. Might as well “live it up” now in death.

And it also simply felt great to interact with the world again! Sure, it wasn’t like he wrote the Great American Novel, won a Noble Prize, or did _anything_ to make better the world in the slightest. But still. It was _something_ — he _was_ impacting the world in some teeny tiny way — even if only he and Klaus knew it.

Klaus needing him and being forced to acknowledge it (rather than brushing aside his advice as a nuisance) was wonderful, too.

So, yeah, Ben figured he’d keep doing it — questionable morals be damned. (He drew the line at straight-up stealing though. He’d never pick pockets, hunt around Kitty’s house for jewels, or pawn off a painting. Ben wanted Klaus and himself to have at least some semblance of _earning_ their wealth. People would have to give it away of their own free will, thanks.)

But, after about five months of their telekinesis act, business began to dry up. It seemed like everyone in the Dallas area who could afford to see Klaus had already done so — usually many, many times.

And though Klaus didn’t really need the money anymore (he saved up a literal embarrassment of riches), he was bored. So was Ben.

They needed to mix up their act.

Klaus suggested Ben snoop on the ticket holders’ homes before each dinner so that Klaus could then claim to be psychic — publicly sharing shocking personal info about the diners.

Ben thought that was too cruel. And icky. He had no interest in stalking.

Instead, he suggested that Klaus summon the diners’ dead relatives in order to deliver sweet messages from the beyond.

But Klaus didn’t exactly view talking to the dead (well, besides Ben) as a joy. He’d never approach them just for shits and giggles.

Finally, Klaus came to Ben one day looking like he’d just invented sliced bread. (Or, more likely for him, edible weed.)

“Remember _Dirty Dancing_?” Klaus asked, smiling like the maniac he was.

“Of course.”

Reginald had made the Umbrella Academy watch the film when they were 12, as part of their training — citing something about learning to avoid the characters’ “deviant behavior.” 

Ben had caught Klaus watching it on his own several times after, pausing to stare at Patrick Swayze’s eyes and abs.

“Let’s do it,” said Klaus.

“Do… what?” 

“Do the… you know…” He lifted his hands up over his head, then behind him, keeping his fingers pointed like a ballerina. “The move! When Joshy catches Kiddy.”

“Johnny catches Baby?” 

“Yeah, them.”

“Klaus, are you asking me to dance?”

“No, I’m asking you to make me levitate.”

Oh.

Hmm. It sounded so ridiculous to Ben that it just might work. And also, it sounded kind of… fun? Maybe? If anything, they’d have a laugh with each other.

So, Ben agreed.

Unfortunately, they weren’t able to rewatch the movie to copy the tricky move. (On account of it not being made for another two decades. Drat.) So, they had to figure out the physics of it all on their own. 

They practiced out on Kitty’s expansive yard when she wasn’t home. For the first several dozen runs, Klaus actually lifted Ben instead of the other way around. Because, well, you couldn’t hurt a ghost. Klaus could drop him all he’d like.

And indeed he did. A LOT. 

“Geez Ben, have you been binging on Ghost McDonalds? Do we need to put you on Atkins or Keto?”

“Oh ha, ha. Can’t body shame someone without a body.”

They kept practicing, Ben flinging himself at Klaus, who flinched as he lifted him up each time.

Eventually, after Klaus managed to hold Ben up for longer than half a second, they decided to switch roles.

Several times, Ben lost his ability to make physical contact the moment he tried to, and Klaus fell flat on his face. (“Oh no, am I less gorgeous?” he’d asked.) Perhaps Klaus was subconsciously too scared to allow himself to be lifted. But, of course, he blamed it on Ben.

“Ok, attempt number 752!” Klaus proclaimed.

“29.”

Ben made contact with Klaus’s knees, lifted up, and… they did it! Klaus stayed up.

“Weeeeee!” said Klaus.

“Arrgh,” grunted Ben. 

“I’m flying!!! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Numb-ah Four!”

“It’s...too… heavy.” Ben dropped him.

But they kept at it, practicing every day for over a week until Ben could reliably lift and hold up Klaus — and even rotate him around a bit — for at least ten seconds. 

Finally, they felt ready for showtime.

Little did they know that it would work so well. _Too_ well in fact, at least in Ben's opinion. By Levitation Show #6, word spread far outside of Kitty’s usual circle of Dallas’s richest socialites. 

A group of local lonely kooks (yes, even kookier and lonelier than Klaus himself) wrote letters to him, requesting the very worst thing Ben thought anyone could ever ask of Klaus: Life advice and spiritual wisdom. Seems they thought of him as some sort of prophet.

“Aaargh, what should I say?” he asked Ben.

“Tell them to go to therapy.”

“Beeeeennnn-uh! I’m serious. I’d like to appear wisdomous.”

“Uh, tell them ‘So no one told you life was gonna be this way. Your job’s a joke. You're broke. Your love life's D.O.A.’”

“Perfect, thanks.”

“Klaus, NO. I was kidding. Jesus, that’s the Friends theme song.”

“So? It’s nice to have friends. I’m doing it.”

He did. And the kooks keep writing and writing and writing, asking for advice and praising his answers, no matter how ridiculous they were.

One afternoon, when Ben was trying to convince Klaus to add a single fruit or veggie to his cart at the grocery store, (“Dark chocolate and milk chocolate don’t make for a balanced meal, Klaus.”) they overheard a woman around their age talking to a friend.

“I told him ‘Fred, you better say my name, say my name. When no one is around you - say baby I love you, if you ain't runnin' game.”

Ben glared at Klaus.

“What? She didn’t hear it from _me_.”

“Oh, my bad. She must have heard from another time traveler.”

“Ok, fiiiine. Fine. I’ve written that.” Klaus giggled, proud of myself. “I may have also quoted ‘Bootylicious’ once or twice as a spiritual mantra.”

Ben rolled his eyes.

“Hey, don’t judge me, Bug a Boo.”

After that, the brothers jokingly referred to the locals who took Klaus seriously — _far_ too seriously — as Destiny’s Children.

It was funny. Stupid. Innocent. Nonsense. No harm could come from it. 

Right?

**Author's Note:**

> My initial plan was to just write a short 'lil humor piece featuring Klaus begging Ben to make him levitate. But then, I dove down a rabbit hole trying to figure out why our usually quite serious shenanigans-free Ben would be game for that. Soooo it turned into this. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Not sure if I love it, but figured I might as well share it.
> 
> Ah, and I like to think that this could be a prequel to my "Ben's Manifest Destiny" story.


End file.
